An inspiring and heart rending account of a 58-year-old man's ongoing fitness journey, despite experiencing monumental setbacks such as a near fatal accident and the loss of his teenage son in successive years. GB Dutt, former research scientist shares learnings from his journey from being a couch potato to a fitness addict.
During my adolescent years and in my 20s, I never bothered about my diet as I could eat whatever I wanted in large quantities and could still be lean or even underweight. I never played any sports as a kid and this trend continued as I grew up, hence fitness was not given any priority. However, after joining for my PhD at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, I ensured that I had sufficient stamina so that I could spend long hours in the laboratory. Things slowly took a turn in my 30s as I started to gain weight and crossed the 70 kg barrier yet looked slim because of my height (1.83 m). The mindless eating and no-exercise routine continued between the ages 30 to 50, which ballooned my weight to 88 kg with a waist of 96 cm (about 38 inches). My father and brother in law got heart attacks at ages 64 and 54, respectively and survived. This woke me up to my fitness regime and my wife and I began to undergo annual medical check-ups. I was diagnosed with mild hypertension at the age of 46 and was put on medication. At the age of 50, I realized that one should take care of one’s health by learning and imbibing good health experiences and this kick-started my journey of weight loss and fitness.
First step towards weight loss
Most of us want to lose weight quickly, with minimum effort and get restless if this does not happen according to our wishes. I was no exception to this notion. We all tend to forget the fact that our weight gain did not happen overnight and hence weight loss cannot be instantaneous. As a first step towards weight loss, I started taking long walks during the weekends with the goal of bringing down my weight from 88 kg to 70 kg rather than just improving fitness. These long walks became brisk ones and during the course of time I could lose 11 kg in about a year.
However, I felt that my weight became stagnant at 77 kg and I needed to do something more to attain my goal. Since I was already doing brisk walks, I thought that I could take up distance running although I never ran in my life. Soon I realized that running is altogether a different ball game especially for a person who is over the age of 51. I could run may be for 100 m and would soon go out of breath. I used to walk for 200 m and run again. Gradually these run to walk distance ratios increased and I could run over a kilometre without a break after practicing for about two months. I felt a sense of achievement and soon I could run a little over 10 km continuously even though I used to run out of steam towards the end. The kids who were at the running/walking track used to mockingly say “come on uncle, you can do it”, which only strengthened my resolve to persist. This routine not only enabled me to achieve my goal of bringing my weight down to below 70 kg for the first time in over twenty years but also got me addicted to running.
Becoming lean and fit
I continued running at least twice a week in addition to walking, taking stairs instead of using an elevator and also kept an eye on what I ate. All these measures further brought down my weight to 63 kg and I developed the body of a distance runner with smaller muscles, a narrow waist and a low body mass index (BMI), which is 18.8 in my case. I felt very satisfied with my progress and rewarded myself with a high end smart watch, which continuously monitored my heart rate and also provided VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption) levels at the end of each run besides tracking other parameters. After I ran for the first time wearing the new watch, it measured my VO2 max as 50 ml/min/kg indicating that the value is in the top 5-10% for people of my age and sex. Remember the numbers provided by sport watches are 5 to10% off compared to laboratory measurements but they are a good indicator of the relative progress in one’s fitness levels. Apart from VO2 max, resting heart rate is another parameter that reflects a person’s aerobic fitness level and in my case it was around 45 bpm. I had gradually transitioned from being an overweight and unfit person into a lean and fit one. My cardiologist was happy and astonished to see the new me and after a thorough check up, asked me to stop taking medication for hypertension, while cautioning me to check my blood pressure regularly.
Running half marathons
Encouraged by weight loss and other health benefits that running offered, I decided to extend my running distance from 10 km to 21 km (half marathon distance). Initially, I found running 21 km was tedious as the pace decreases by about 10% compared to a 10 km run, but I got accustomed to it after a while. Initially I used to run 21 km at least once in two weeks and subsequently once every week. Buoyed by the success of my 21 km stint, I registered for my first competitive half marathon race, which took place in November 2016. I finished the race in a time of 1:49:49 at 5:12 min/km pace and was placed 8th out of 153 participants - not a bad start for someone who took up running as a means to lose weight. This result got me hooked on to racing and in the following four months I participated in 5 other half marathons and a 10 km race. I did well in all these races, with the high point of being placed 3rd in the over 50 year age category. The feeling was incredible as this was the first time I had a podium finish and received a prize in sports. Besides enjoying my running, what made me happy was that strangers (who worked at my research centre) used to approach me and ask for suggestions on diet and weight loss, especially after seeing my recent transformation. It gave me a feeling that I am knowledgeable in a domain apart from my research field.
Crippling accident
This progress came to a standstill on a fateful day (3rd April 2017) when I got hit on my left wrist by a bike that was travelling at high speed while I was at a pedestrian crossing. The biker not only ignored the red light but was also going fast. Due to the sudden impact, both of us fell down causing serious head injury to me along with wrist and clavicle fractures. Although I have no recollection of this unfortunate event, I saw CCTV footage of it in the police station afterwards. I was in coma and on ventilator support for 13 days at Jaslok hospital, Mumbai and also contracted pneumonia. However, I recovered from the near-fatal accident probably as a consequence of being extremely fit. I came home after 26 days but I had little strength and could walk only with the aid of a walker. I also had blurred vision, a frozen shoulder and difficulty with speech. It took me more than a month to be able to sit for few hours in a day and to distinguish between reality and my imagination. I gradually recovered and 103 days after the accident could run a distance of 10 km but at a slower pace. My blurred vision and frozen shoulder did not deter me from running, but the slower pace (more than a minute slower compared to my pre-accident pace) made me feel low and worthless. Moreover, my VO2 max dropped to 37 ml/min/kg from 50 ml/min/kg. But my wife, Chandra, kept telling me that I was lucky to be alive, reminding me of the extent of injury that I suffered.
It took more than 6 months for me to regain proper vision and also intensive physiotherapy for my shoulder to become normal. However, despite my best efforts I was running slower by about 20 s/km compared to my earlier pace despite getting back my earlier VO2 max. Though my recovery was almost 100%, I felt that I lost enthusiasm for many things. I stopped doing mundane things such as reading newspaper, watching television, going to cinemas and motivation to participate in races. But I still enjoyed running a lot, which kept me going. I probably would have regained my enthusiasm for other things as well in due course had a catastrophe of unimaginable magnitude not happened the following year.
Losing only child
23rd September 2018 is one of the darkest days in my life. Our only son, Naman left home at 10:30 pm, never came back and we lost him forever. He was going through depression for which he was taking medication and also undergoing therapy. According to his therapist, Naman was getting better. But on that terrible night after we slept, he left home and boarded a local train that was going towards Mumbai according to the CCTV footage from the train station. The police did not find any other footage of him despite their best efforts. However, after searching frantically for 11 days (with the help of the police) Naman’s remains were found on a nearby island in an unrecognizable condition on the 4th October. Our lives crashed forever, even though we had an agonizing time for 11 days prior to knowing the eventual fate of our beloved son. While we were looking for Naman, I ran on two days to keep myself sane and it helped me to some extent. But from 7th October, I started running regularly and to many outsiders it looked as if nothing happened. For me, running gave me some kind of break from reality and solace from grief because it was the only time that I did not think about my son either consciously or subconsciously. Even after three and half years, running makes me feel better mentally and I can only say that these days I run for my mental rather than physical health. Losing Naman elevated my blood pressure readings once again despite no change in my weight, exercise routine and diet. I was back on medication after being away from it for 3 years. Clearly, mental health does have a significant bearing on one’s physical well-being.
Important to be in sync with one’s body
Despite these setbacks, sometimes I feel that I am born with excellent genes. Normally endurance runners do a lot of stretching before and after their runs. Most experts recommend it as well because these movements help relax muscles and prevent injury, derailing one’s fitness routine. But I never followed these rules. I take a brisk walk for a kilometre and start my run and after my run I do lazy walking for an hour or two depending on available time. I used to go through severe back problem from the age of 30 but that also vanished after I started running. I believe that one has to understand the limitations of one’s body and work accordingly. Many people complain that they do not find sufficient time for their fitness goals or weight management. If one considers fitness (or to be precise one’s well-being) as an essential part of life besides eating, sleeping and going to work, then one can always manage time. Furthermore, if one takes up an activity that one enjoys rather than going by peer pressure then it can be sustained over a period of time. From my experience I can confidently say that fitness activities neither increase the amount of sleep that is needed nor appetite, but laziness and boredom do. I used to be a food-addict and a couch potato who became a fitness addict. I am approaching 60 and I have more stamina than what I had in my 30s and I never get tired. My average resting heart rate is between 42-44 bpm and VO2 max fluctuates between 57-61 ml/min/kg, and in terms of aerobic fitness I am in top 1% of the people in the age and sex category. If a person like me can achieve this level of fitness after starting late in life and sustain it after going through so many catastrophic life experiences, I am sure that anyone can take up fitness as a way of life-provided they are motived. So it is never too late to start your fitness journey for a better quality of life especially in the advancing years.
(About the author: G. B. Dutt obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry from University of Bombay after carrying out his research work at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, USA and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Subsequently, he worked as a research scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre for over 21 years. His research work essentially focused on understanding molecular rotation in liquids and complex fluids. He published numerous research articles in international journals of repute. Dr. Dutt is in top 2% of the Scientists from India in his subject (Chemical Physics) according to a study carried out by researchers from Stanford University in 2020. He took voluntary retirement from his job after losing his only son, Naman and lives with his wife in Vashi, Navi Mumbai.)
